


Do not pick the wildflowers

by LadyKG



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fix-It, I change three things total and then had fun with the outcome, Itachi is ACTUALLY a bad guy, Konan POV, M/M, Multi, Obito POV, Sakura POV, Shisui pov, This is going to be long, and it bugged me, and take a while, but yahiko is one of them, kinda inspired by one of blackkat's works but saying which one would be a spoiler, most likely, not even sorry, read to see what I change, sakura is so very lesbian, so this is lowkey dedicated to her to make up for that, so you got two left, team seven feels, updates slow, yahiko lives because that was a plot hole
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-28
Updated: 2018-02-27
Packaged: 2019-03-25 00:47:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13822953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyKG/pseuds/LadyKG
Summary: Sakura had a routine. It was a nice routine. She liked her routine. It let her keep hold of those last little bits of sanity left, after years of dealing with team seven had worn away all the rest.Today, her routine was flipped on its side.





	Do not pick the wildflowers

**Author's Note:**

> 'Ello lovely readers,  
> this is going to update SLOW, like the next chapter probs won't be up for a long ass time. So sorry about that. But... yeah. Anyway, this is a fix-it, I changed three things! And then I was like: how would this affect everything else, and bam this happened. Because Naruto has plot holes and it annoys me. So this is what happened. And again this is inspired a part by one of Blackkat's works, but I can't really tell you which one without spoiling it.  
> Anyway, onto the chapter, hope you all enjoy!!!

Sakura had a routine. It was a nice routine. Every morning she woke up with the rise of the sun and went through the sluggish motions of making a piping mug of coffee. Pitch black and mouth-burning. Then she would check her traps for any idiot teammate dumb enough to try and disturb her precious hours of sleep. Again. When there were none, and her coffee had been emptied, she pulled on her gear and hopped roofs to the hospital. She may be ANBU now, but the institute could turn into a right disaster without proper supervision. And she had spent _years_ making sure it stayed in order. Even with Shizune in charge it helped calm her nerves to see that it was still functioning.

Her routine ended after she had placed her scorpion mask on, and stood before her Hokage. Sasuke, Naruto, and Sai at her sides, as poised as they could possibly be, while waiting for their next mission.

They had been a team for years now. Her boys and her taking on the more demanding missions; frontline fighters training up to be future leaders. That was what the rumor mill spun anyway; the future Sannin, others said - although she thought that was mostly just Shisui, and Shisui didn’t count.

She _liked_ her routine. It let her keep hold of those last little bits of sanity left, after years of dealing with team seven had worn away all the rest.

Today, her routine was flipped on its side. A warning flair from one of the seals Naruto helped her place had her flinging a kunai into her living room, only to have it caught between the gloved fingers of her old sensei.

“Kakashi,” she blinked at him. Figured. He was one of the few who could actually avoid her safe guards.

“The Hokage wants a meeting with Team Nami,” he told her, letting her kunai spin harmlessly around one finger.

She glanced over at the clock, “At five in the morning?”

“Four, actually,” the man said, all eye-smiles and cheer, “but there was this-“

She flung another kunai at him before he could finish his lame excuse, already pulling on her gear and half out the door by the time he lazily lobbed them back at her to catch.

The sun hadn’t even woken up yet, the stars overhead still flickering prettily in a canvas of black as she landed on the window-sill of her shishou’s office. Whatever she could want this early had to be urgent. Sakura pulled into the room and slotted neatly into line with her boys, all of them kneeling obediently in front of their leader. It was the most formal any of them would ever be, and Sakura had learned to be grateful for it.

“Hokage-sama,” she said in greeting.

“Stand,” Tsunade ordered, picking up a scroll and rolling it out over her desk. “I’m sending you four on a mission to Taki. We received a hawk this morning that The Hunters are heading towards the smaller nation, and we think they’ll be making their move.”

The moved forward, surrounding their Hokage’s desk as she looked over a map. “And we’re bringing Naruto?” Sakura asked, because The Hunters have been going after biju, and to put her teammate so close would be insane.

“No, Naruto is staying behind.” Tsunade’s sharp eyes moved to the blond before he could protest. “But kami knows he would have thrown a fit if I hadn’t let him stay for the meeting.” (Sakura can hear the meaning behind the words - Tsunade had sent for Team Nami minus Naruto but Kakashi, the bastard, had called them all because her lazy old sensei didn’t want to deal with Naruto’s pestering as to their whereabouts.)

“Dickless is always dramatic,” Sai said, smile just shy of natural spread over his face.

Sakura reached out and covered Naruto’s mouth before his loud protests could start, “I haven’t had my coffee today.”

The sound of their jaws clicking shut echoed in the office. Seemingly satisfied with this new development, Tsunade continued. “Your mission is to prevent the capture of Taki’s jinchuriki and aide in trapping one of their members for onsite interrogation.”

“Interrogation,” Sasuke raised an eyebrow. “But we’re a-“

“Frontline team, I know.” Tsunade interrupted, “Which is why I’ll have a member of our interrogation unit joining you. Her name’s Yamanaka Ino, and she was in your graduating class. She’s already been briefed and will be waiting at the North gate at six for departure.”

 _‘Yamanaka Ino,’_ she repeated to herself slowly. The name sounded familiar, but in a way that she couldn’t place. She knew, obviously, that they were one of the major clans in the village, but the first name she couldn’t place. Then again, she had forgotten many of those who had gone to the academy with her. She hadn’t had many friends back then; just Naruto, Sasuke, and Shisui - and, again, Shisui didn’t really count. (Naruto always blamed himself for that, and Sakura never understood - not until the incident with Mizuki in the woods, when his secret had been revealed. Her boy had been so scared of rejection that Sakura had wanted to punch every idiot who didn’t see how amazing he was in the face.)

She supposed they sometimes hung out with Inuzuka, as well as that Nara kid, and his Akimichi friend, but other than that, in the years that have followed her graduation, making jounin and then ANBU she barely remembered those she went to school with. (She remembers going on missions with a few of the other teams when they were all chuunin still, but those are times she would rather not think on.)

“This is S-ranked,” Tsunade continued, “so pack accordingly. And to make sure Naruto doesn’t do anything stupid like follow you he’ll be my assistant until you return. Dismissed.”

They rushed from the room, splitting off into opposite directions and pointedly ignoring Naruto’s loud protests. She had only thirty minutes to gather the remaining number of tools she’d need, along with an extra set of bandages and soldier pills. Not to mention coffee.

For this Kakashi would be having an up close and personal meeting with a boulder when she got back, she’d make sure of it.

She was ten minutes early, but her mouth was still cooling from her rush to down the two cups of coffee that she managed to make in time. Each breath sent a chill through her teeth, making them sting, despite the warm Konoha day. She landed without sound by the guard’s station, throwing them a wave as she leaned against the gate’s frame to wait. It didn’t come as a surprise that she was the first to arrive, it was common for her team, but what did make her blink was the blond that was sauntering towards the gate. Sakura didn’t recognize her, and for a brief moment thought that perhaps it was the other member of their team - but really when would Sakura _ever_ be that luck? No, clearly the bombshell of a kunoichi would just walk past and Sakura would have to settle for the hope that she’d see her again in the village at some point.

Except when the blond arrived she looked right at Sakura and _smiled_ , and that was it, Sakura was _doomed._ How could one person be so pretty? It simply wasn’t fair. There must be some natural law against it, one that this woman clearly didn’t read up on. So really, it wasn’t entirely Sakura’s fault that it took her brain a few moments to catch up with the fact that this was Yamanaka Ino, and she was saying something. “What?”

“I said that it’s nice to know there’ll be another girl on the team,” Ino repeated. “You are here for mission S7710, right?”

“Yeah,” Sakura rushed to cover up her mistake, forcing down the blush of embarrassment trying to work its way onto her face. “Sorry, coffee hasn’t kicked in yet. I’m Sakura by the way, it’s nice to meet you.” She gave her most inviting smile, because she was _pretty,_ and if she was this recognized in the interrogation department then she was skilled too.

“Ino, but you already knew that,” she brushed her fingers through the hair covering her eye, drawing it back, and if it were even the slightest bit longer it could have tucked behind her ear. “And it’s understandable. Hokage-sama must’ve been feeling really sadistic to have us leave so early.”

“Shishou’s always sadistic,” Sakura snorted, thinking back on all the times that Tsunade had dragged her out for training. There were _boulders_ involved, and Sakura never knew that being hit by a tree could break so many ribs until she was just a moment too slow in dodging. “She’s just good at hiding it.”

“Wait, Shishou?” Ino blinks at her. “You mean you’re _that_ Sakura? Team Nami’s Sakura?”

“Uh,” Sakura shifted her feet, eyebrow raising, “yes? Didn’t Shishou tell you what team you’d be assigned?”

“She only told me to be at the gates by six.” Her weight shifted from one his to the other, head tilting slightly, “Hey, didn’t we go to the academy together?”

“Your name does sound familiar,” Sakura conceded, trying to follow the fraying string of thought back to the source of memory. All she got were flashes of blonde hair from across the classroom, a loud voice, and watching from a distance as the girls in her class play while she and Naruto shared the meal her mom made. It was not much to go on really.

Ino hummed blue eyes narrowing slightly at her, “You hung out with Shika-kun sometimes right?”

It took Sakura’s mind a moment to make the leap that ‘Shika-kun’ was _Shikamaru_ , but when she did it only produced more questions than answers, “Yeah, but only until we graduated.”

“Oh, that’s right,” Ino exclaimed, “you, Naruto, and Sasuke left the academy early.”

Sakura snorted, arms crossing, “Not that it did much good, Kaka-sensei barely taught us anything the first year.” They had still managed to pass the chuunin exams that year, however, but that was more because Sasuke was _amazing_ at blackmailing his cousin into training than anything else.

“Hatake Kakashi?” Ino continued after Sakura’s nod of confirmation, “Isn’t he supposed to be one of the best? At least, Genma-san is pretty fond of him.”

Sakura shrugged, “He got better.” Which wasn’t a lie. Kakashi had practically avoided them at all costs for the first two months that he had them under his metaphorical wing. Sakura had hated him for it at first, angered at being ignored and frustrated that she and her friends weren’t improving as shinobi should. Now that she’s older it’s more obvious that Kakashi was just scared of failing them.

Ino took it at face value, or Sakura guessed, she knew that pushing wouldn’t gain anything. “Shika, Choji, and I had Asuma-sensei. He was nice, but he let Shika sleep _way_ too much, in my opinion. That idiot slept enough outside of training as it was,” Ino sniffed in disdain at this, it was clear that the situation hadn’t changed much in the past years just by her expression alone.

Out of the corner of her eye Sakura caught sight of a shock of blonde hair, and so she cast her gaze towards the road, easily spotting Naruto with Sasuke and Sai flanking either side. It seemed Naruto was able to convince Tsunade to let him see them off at the very least, “Looks like the rest of the team is here.”

Ino followed her gaze, “Just on time.”

It was true, but that didn’t mean they would actually _leave_ on time, because despite their best efforts Kaka-sensei rubbed his perpetual lateness off on all of them. In other words, Sakura wouldn’t be surprised if it took them another hour to get onto the road.

Naruto sent her blinding smile as he got closer, “Sakura-chan!”

“You’re not coming,” she said bluntly.

His smile deflated, “But-.”

“No ‘but’s, dobe.” Sasuke gave him a flat look, “The last time you tried this we were on d-ranks for two months.”

Naruto opened his mouth to continue arguing, and Sakura didn’t bother to hold back her sigh; it would be a long time before they could get on their way.

“Ugly, my books say it’s polite to introduce your friends to a new acquaintance.” Sakura felt a fire burning up her face at that stupid nickname. Sai just _couldn’t_ resist calling her that in front of Ino. Beautiful Ino who probably will never talk to her again after this mission because her boys were _monsters._

Her gloves creaked with the clench of her fists, “Ino, meet my idiots.” She waved a hand to the left, “That’s Sai, and the other is Sasuke. And Naruto’s the blond one.” She sent a strained grin that promised _pain_ to her team, “Idiots, this is Ino.”

Naruto and Sasuke paused long enough in their argument - _flirting,_ though neither would admit to it - to send Ino a cheerful wave and stoic nod respectively.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Sai gave his best fake smile, and Sakura sorely hoped Ino didn’t take offense to how sarcastic it made his greeting. Her boys were _everything_ to her, so no matter how pretty Ino was, if she didn’t respond well then any hope for pursing the butterflies in her stomach would be gone. But Ino just smiled back, and Sakura’s chest suddenly felt entirely full and yet weightless all at once.


End file.
